Whereas, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires states to assess
all students in their state’s assessment program; and

Whereas, the Act provides for a limited number of students with disabilities to be
assessed with an alternate assessment, but only 1% of a school district’s tested population may
be counted as proficient or above using the alternate assessment; and

Whereas, this limitation results in some special needs students being included in
the regular state assessment system when, in fact, their cognitive disabilities are such that they
should not be assessed with their age or grade-level peers; and

Whereas, a more appropriate assessment for them might be a test that was
developed for use in some grade-level below the grade in which they are classified, but the
United States Department of Education regulations governing the implementation of the NCLB
Act prohibit this "out of grade-level" testing; and

Whereas, the United States Department of Education has recently allowed for the
inclusion of an additional 2% of students with disabilities to be assessed with a modified grade-level assessment, but this additional flexibility still prohibits “out of grade-level” testing; and

Whereas, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA),
which predates the NCLB Act, contains requirements for assessment that must be included in
the student’s individualized educational program (IEP), which may not meet the requirements
of the NCLB Act for assessment and thus may place the IEP team at odds with the overall NCLB
assessment process and may create confusion for parents; and

Whereas, certain accommodations written into an IEP, such as reading out loud
or paraphrasing, are currently not acceptable for certain assessments under NCLB procedures,
thus making the student’s performance on the assessment not count for NCLB purposes and
denying the student an accommodation that the IEP team has documented as necessary to the
child’s best chances for a proficient performance; and

Whereas, Secretary Margaret Spellings has shown an admirable flexibility in
permitting experimentation with alternative approaches to the NCLB Act while keeping the focus
on accountability:

Now, therefore, be it resolved by the members of the House of
Representatives of the Ninety-third General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate
concurring therein, that the interests of the special needs students of the state would best be
served by reviewing the assessment provisions of IDEA and the NCLB Act together to eliminate
contradictory objectives, so that accommodations that are appropriate to a student with an IEP
do not invalidate the student’s assessment results for the purposes of No Child Left Behind
assessments; and

Be it further resolved that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of
Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for Margaret
Spellings, Secretary of the United States Department of Education and each member of the
Missouri Congressional delegation.